Without risk capital, Europe will go nowhere, says Kamall. He regrets that stricter EU rules for hedge-fund and private-equity fund managers will be expensive for the economy. From 2018 fund managers for businesses in the EU will have to meet stricter guidelines monitored by the new European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). These fund managers will have to comply with strict disclosure rules about their business strategies and hold larger amounts of capital, which reduces their revenues. Kamall argues that European investors must not be isolated from the financial action in the rest of the world. While protection against default or negligence is desirable, nobody wants protection against risk itself.

Kamall is a conservative member of the European Parliament for London.

It is generally thought that nations are becoming more globalized and therefore more alike, but the response of British and French citizens to their respective country’s economic situation is perfectly in tune with each country’s national character. Historical experience may play a role, as the British remember war-time rationing fondly, while the French have a history of getting much accomplished via street protests. Both country’s political scenes have an effect as well: French authorities spend money on expensive art and travel, while the British have a coalition government with a broad pool of citizenry with varying sympathies. Time will tell, but national character will determine how each nation deals with its problems.

Applebaum is a weekly columnist for The Post, writing on foreign affairs.

The pope’s visit to the United Kingdom stirred up religious and atheistic fervor. While Applebaum points out that a noted Jewish or Muslim leader would not receive the same angry protests as a Christian one, she also notes that the furor was ultimately good for the cause of religious freedom. Due to the protests, the pope received a tremendous amount of media attention. And because of the left-leaning nature of the more vicious protests, the conservative right came to the pope’s defense and ended up learning more about some important aspects of Catholicism. All in all, Pope Benedict XVI’s visit was beneficial politically and socially.

Applebaum is a weekly columnist for The Post, writing on foreign affairs.

Annunziata says policy makers’ mixed signals are fueling volatility in sovereign-debt markets. EU leaders have two choices. They can accept that whenever a member country is in trouble it will be rescued without a debt restructuring, in which case they should impose tight and enforceable fiscal rules to keep members in line and avoid moral hazard. Or they can adopt a sovereign-debt restructuring mechanism and let markets play their disciplining role by pricing sovereign-credit risk in an environment of greater transparency and predictability. Postponing this choice will keep the pressure high on countries like Greece, requiring ever stronger efforts to improve fiscal balances and bolster potential growth. It will also delay the repricing of sovereign risk that is an essential component of the sought-after stabilization in financial markets.

The British government, nostalgic for the hardy survivalism of World War II and eager for a secure future, is cutting government spending with vigor. The solution to that country’s economic woes seems to be austerity, and many British citizens and leaders are embracing this approach so that they can, in the words of Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, “look our children and grandchildren in the eye and say we did the best for them.” In contrast, austerity holds little appeal for Americans, who long for the post-war era prosperity and are still accustomed to instant gratification.

Applebaum is a weekly columnist for The Post, writing on foreign affairs.

Parallels between Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis and the global financial crisis are manifold. As with the housing market and the derivatives craze, the euro tale is one of easy money, excessive leverage, bad accounting, and failed supervision. De Vos states that the euro’s Stability and Growth Pact, meant to restrain budget deficits and national debt, was violated in its application and ignored in its supervision. In short, this was a bubble of public excess waiting to be pricked. For the sake of the euro’s and the continent’s future, political scapegoating needs to stop. The cardinal issue for the euro is whether its members will implement structural reforms that coincide with increased austerity before doing so only furthers their decline.

De Vos is a professor at Ghent University and the general director of the Itinera Institute, a Brussels-based non-partisan policy institute.

The UK lags well behind other European countries and the US when it comes to bringing prosecutions for bribery, writes Falconer. This is largely due to outdated laws that leave the Serious Fraud Office ill-equipped to fight corruption, especially when it involves UK companies trading outside the UK. For this reason, Falconer says it is vital that the Bribery Bill makes it through parliament before the general election. Failure to do this could lead other nations to doubt that the UK is serious about tackling the problem.

The writer is the former Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice.

Despite dire warnings from the European Commission, the ECB, and the markets about both the rising cost of Greek government debt and the cost of insuring it, Papaconstantinou argues that Greece’s fiscal and economic problems are not calamitous.

Posted by , 3rd December 2009

George Papaconstantinou
12/2/2009

The newly elected Greek government is faced with an economy in a recession, a grave fiscal situation, and deep-rooted structural problems, with a public deficit estimated at 12.7% of GDP and debt above 110% of GDP. On top of this, Greek statistics and Greek policies now suffer from a lack of credibility as a consequence of the previous government’s reporting a fiscal deficit only half as high as we now know to be the case. However, Papaconstantinou makes the case that as the new government in Athens pushes for economic and budgetary change, skeptics should suspend their disbelief.

Five years after the Orange Revolution, Gongadze says that those longing for strong-armed rule may outnumber those who want to preserve their imperfect democracy. She attributes this to unrealized reforms and widespread corruption, which have had a major corrosive effect on the Ukrainian public.

Posted by , 1st December 2009

Myroslava Gongadze
11/29/2009

From a once-promising democratic leader in the region, Ukraine has dissipated into a source of disenchantment for the democracy activists in neighboring ex-Soviet republics. The EU and other democratic nations need a clear, constructive, and principled policy with regard to Ukraine. If Kiev’s next leaders prove unwilling or unable to halt the nation’s slide toward its authoritarian past, Western powers will have to support the civil society movement and new emerging leaders. This may help preserve the few gains of the Orange Revolution. But even if Ukrainians lose their way, Gongadze believes that the basic democratic reforms they have earned will ensure that their destiny will still remain in their own hands.

Gongadze is a Ukrainian journalist and human rights activist, and the widow of slain Ukrainian journalist Georgy Gongadze.